


Tea and Sympathy

by sabinelagrande



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Cross-cultural, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Friendship, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-30
Updated: 2009-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 10:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a peaceful day in Atlantis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea and Sympathy

They didn't get a lot of days off in Atlantis. When he stopped and thought about it, Ronon figured that was kinda fucked up, but it wasn't like he was used to a whole lot of weekends before he came. It was good, though, because he got to hang out with Sheppard, which there never seemed to be enough time for lately. So they holed up in Sheppard's room with beer and snacks and magazines- Ronon liked the ads, you could buy _so much shit_ on Earth- and had a pretty good afternoon.

Except Sheppard was obviously angry about something.

Ronon raised an eyebrow at him. "You wanna talk?"

"It's nothing," he insisted, flipping a page like he was suddenly pissed off at golf clubs. Ronon waited for it. Five, four, three, two-

Sheppard threw down his magazine and sat up. "My boyfriend is out of his goddamned _mind_," he said fervently.

That was something he was still getting used to Sheppard saying. Not that McKay was out of his mind- Ronon had been pretty clear on that from the beginning. The boyfriend part, though, that was new. The bitching wasn't new, though, so Ronon just let it wash over him.

"-I don't even know where he _got_ so many shoes, it's not like there's a Nordstrom's around here or anything-"

Ronon had never really understood why fucking was such a big deal to the Earth people. Sateda didn't even _have_ such a thing as homosexuality, whatever the hell that was, which the anthropologists had all told him was really interesting.

Military service was compulsory between the ages of seventeen and twenty. Throw a bunch of guys that age together, and, yeah, of course there was a whole lot of fucking going on. It wasn't a big deal, and it didn't really change anything. Sneaking out to hit on the local girls was both more fun and more dangerous, though, so it'd been Ronon's preferred option.

And when you turned twenty-one, you got out and went on with your life, got married, had some kids; but if you'd rather spend the rest of your days with a bunch of sweaty guys, you stayed in the military.

McKay had tormented Sheppard for _days_ once he found that out.

"-and I told him I was only trying to negotiate a treaty, but of course, just because her hand was in my pants-"

So Ronon really hadn't known what the hell was going on when the announcement came through. Sheppard got on the intercom and started talking about repeal this and freedom that, and suddenly everybody got real quiet; then somebody started clapping, and suddenly, everybody got real loud, and McKay passed clean out.

Carson explained it to him as Ronon carried McKay to the infirmary, though he still really didn't get it. Then there was a party, with a bunch of decorations that were really way too colorful; but there was cake, and then two of the chicks from the biology department made out.

It was pretty much the best party ever.

"-made _me_ carry it back for him, even though I told him it was never going to fit in our room, when it didn't even fit through the fucking _Stargate_-"

And then one day not too long afterwards, Sheppard and McKay walked into the mess hall holding hands, and everybody got real quiet again. This time, though, they stayed quiet. And Sheppard walked around the city looking brittle and pissed off all the time, and McKay flapped his arms more than usual.

For himself, Ronon actually kind of liked it, because he just beat the shit out of anybody who said anything nasty about either one of them- or anybody else who'd come out- and what they might do to each other's asses. It didn't have anything to do with Ronon's personal stance on doing things to people's asses; he thought the thing about defining your whole life based on whether or not you liked asses was pretty ridiculous, honestly. It was just that they were being dicks to people he liked, and Ronon didn't care for that. And the really weird thing was that people _thanked_ him for sticking up for them- they even left him booze and chocolate, sometimes- and hell, he'd already been planning on doing it for free.

Some of the Marines had a problem with it, which Ronon had kinda been expecting once somebody explained to him how this whole thing worked. And one afternoon, six of them cornered him in the gym after his workout, apparently intending to teach him a lesson about defending queers. And Ronon, wanting to understand Earth customs better, asked them what exactly made somebody queer. Cause from what he'd seen, the Marines liked to slap each others' asses a lot and take showers together, and he thought guys' naked asses were pretty much central to the whole thing.

That was when they jumped him.

He'd _really_ liked that part.

"-so that was a total catastrophe. And don't even get me started about the last time we-"

But it got better, eventually. People went back to gossiping about other, more interesting stuff. A bunch of people left with the Daedalus, and Sheppard told him he wasn't allowed to break any of the new recruits who showed up to replace them- unless they came at him in groups of seven or more. A couple of people got married, which meant more parties with cake and kissing girls, and Ronon got invited to every single one of them.

And by the first time McKay leaned over and kissed Sheppard in the middle of lunch, nobody gave a shit.

"-with his _tongue_, can you believe that? I told him, 'Look, you don't know where that's been,' but he just kept on-"

The really important thing was that it didn't change the team any. Sheppard and McKay slept together whenever they had to stay overnight off-world, but they'd always done that- unless they assumed shit was gonna go down overnight, and then it just made more sense for them all to stay together.

Just as long as they weren't fucking in front of him- not while he was sober, anyway- he just really didn't care. Cause if he wanted to see people fucking in front of him- well, it turned out that one of the biologists was something called a bisexual, and he still really didn't know what that word meant, but, hey, he wasn't complaining.

"-you drink _one_ glass of orange juice, and it's like you just ordered him back to Siberia-"

The thing was, though, that it did change Sheppard.

Ronon knew a whole lot about being tense. For seven years, it made him ache at night, all of his muscles curled up tight on themselves, but he'd needed it, then. And even in Atlantis, it had taken him months for his body to catch up and understand that there was no reason not to relax.

Sheppard, though, never relaxed. In the field, Ronon liked that about him- he was always ready for shit to go down. But back home in Atlantis, he sprawled across things and slouched a lot, but he never stopped looking like a bowstring. He only got tighter when the news came through, the corners of his eyes going tense at the weirdest times. Until one day, and then it was like he suddenly just snapped. And now, lying back in his bed, eating potato chips, even while bitching his heart out, he looked completely relaxed.

He looked like he felt safe.

He realized Sheppard had quit talking, and now he was looking at Ronon expectantly.

Ronon quit smiling and composed himself, pretending like he was seriously pondering whatever the hell Sheppard had been talking about. "That's fucked up, dude," he intoned; he'd long since learned it was the traditional Earth response for such things.

"I know!" Sheppard sighed, collapsing back into his pillow. "Thanks for letting me get that out, buddy."

Ronon grinned. "Any time."


End file.
